A Cry From Below:
Some cries are better left unheard…
I was scrolling on my phone one evening, waiting for my mom to arrive with the takeout she had promised, when a weak cry from my basement signaled I wasn’t alone.
It sent a chill down my spine, but something about it pulled at me—I just couldn’t ignore it.
It sounded like a child…crying.
I didn’t have any younger siblings—not that I knew of, anyway.
I knew I shouldn’t have, but my curiosity got the better of me, and before I even consciously realized it, I was already in the hallway of my seemingly vacant house.
“Hello?” I called out, my voice barely above a whisper.
No answer.
Just the faint, muffled sob echoing softly from the closed basement.
I tiptoed toward the basement door, my fingers hovering over the rusty doorknob before finally gripping it. It felt cold, almost sending a sickening chill down my spine.
I opened it, despite my instincts screaming at me to turn back.
The stairs creaked beneath my weight as I stepped down, each step slower than the last. The air grew damp, thick—harder to breathe.
Halfway down, the crying stopped.
Silence.
I froze.
Then it came back.
Not crying.
Laughing.
Low. Rough. Twisted.
An evil sound that didn’t belong to anything human, rumbling through the walls and settling deep in my chest.
My breath caught as I slowly backed up a step.
Then another, my speed increasing along with my panic.
I turned to run—
The door slammed shut.
The sound cracked through the air, loud enough to make me flinch. I lunged for the knob, my hands shaking as I twisted it.
It wouldn’t budge.
A sharp, sickening *click* echoed from the other side.
It was locked.
I wasn’t alone.
I was trapped.
A cold dread pooled in my stomach as I stared into the darkness below, my heart pounding so loud it drowned out everything else.
Then—
Something moved.
A scream caught in my throat as a cold, sharp hand grabbed my shoulder.
Tears burned my eyes as panic took over.
The figure didn’t have a face—just a dark shadow in the shape of a monster.
I tried to scream and run, but the figure grabbed me, dragging me into the damp darkness of our stone-cold basement.
Some sounds should be ignored…Would you have listened?